I am no longer a Bearcat. What exactly is a “bearcat” anyway? Apparently there is such an animal, called a binturong (Arctictis binturong), in southeast Asia. Related to neither bears nor cats, we are also alike in that we no longer play softball for the team of the same name.
Firstly, it is very unfortunate that events have escalated to this point and it is unfortunate that you and Rob have refused to engage with the rest of the Club Management.
We accept from your communications on WhatsApp and Teamer along with both of you dropping out of Club Management and team WhatsApp Chats that you are withdrawing from the Castleknock Softball Club.
It is regrettable that you have chosen leave the Castleknock club after such a long history with both club teams – Bearcats and Wildcats.
Castleknock Softball Club Management: Paul McGrath, Judy Cecil, Alan O’Rafferty, Alexandra Howard, Michael Shea, Jerry Kearns, in an email dated 8 July 2022
… and then not long after that,
As a member of one of the teams a player must be a member of the club. … When you leave the club you leave the team. Your move to disassociate yourself with the club automatically removes you from any team within said club.
Castleknock Softball Club Management: Paul McGrath, Judy Cecil, Alan O’Rafferty, Alexandra Howard, Michael Shea, Jerry Kearns, in an email dated 13 July 2022
The Castleknock Softball Club Management Group engineered events to arrive at precisely the point where I was forced to not engage with them. Acting in bad faith, subversively undermining me as team captain both at the club and league level, they isolated and excluded me (and a few others) from their group. That is distinctly different from their narrative of me choosing to leave, and make no mistake: they forced me out, because I didn’t ask their permission or get their consensus regarding two issues, one being insisting on equal playing time for women, and the second being my right and responsibility as team captain to file a sexual harassment complaint with the league.
They will likely repeat the nonsense that “he left the club!” so often as to truly believe it. But that’s simply not true: the club gave me the boot. They’re just too cowardly to come out and say it directly.
This was my final post in the “2022 Prem Captains Group” Whatsapp. (I was removed from the captain’s group the next day, by Alan O’Rafferty’s buddy and league chairman Peter Murnaghan.)
I’ve left the Castleknock Softball Club “management group”, which has been interpreted by them as me leaving the club, which has been further interpreted as no longer being part of the Bearcats team. This is what they’ve wanted from the beginning.
Through various events this season, it is clear the Castleknock Softball Club “management group” do not, and did not ever, support the Bearcats move to become a Premier team, and actively worked to disrupt our efforts. Rob Atkinson and I left their “management group” as they only serve to manage the Div 2 Wildcats team and that agenda.
Alan O’Rafferty was against the existence of the Bearcats in the Premier division. He undermined the Bearcats efforts at every opportunity in 2022, on important issues such as gender parity and 5:5, right down to petty, unimportant disagreements such as the Bearcats players preference to have an “away” jersey.
In our minds, Alan and the “management group” ceased to have any input regarding the Bearcats when they opposed my right and responsibility as captain to lodge a sexual harassment complaint with the league, based on comments said about Rob Atkinson’s daughter, by an umpire. Alan O’Rafferty abused his position as SL Secretary by suppressing this complaint and instead hid behind the facade of sensitivity, confidentiality, and the anonymity of the women involved, so he could “handle it internally” and forego any investigation, which allowed the illegal transfer of a player from our team (which he facilitated), so that the involvement in any investigation into sexual harassment would not impact on her chances of playing at national level.
When these facts were pointed out, I was accused of “character assassination”.
I operate openly, with integrity, honesty, and transparency. This is at odds with the Castleknock Softball Club management team, who operate in secret, behind the scenes, and with no accountability or oversight.
As this is their mode of operation, I cannot have any role in the Castleknock Softball Club.
If your team has any scheduled games with the Castleknock Bearcats, I have no involvement.
John Edwards, on 25 July 2022, in the “2022 Prem Div Captains” Whatsapp group.
I’m sure the new-look Bearcats team, and Castleknock Softball Club, will continue on, but it will not include me. The Castleknock Softball Club are managed by a patriarchal, cowardly, regressive, and disingenuous set of individuals, which mirrors the administration of both the league and the national governing body. Their collective failures to act on really simple and straightforward issues such as gender equality and sexual harassment, is mindblowing (not to mention frustrating). Only after there was a fear of exposure of the appearance of doing nothing, did they scramble about to investigate themselves for doing nothing, and of course found themselves to not be afoul of any wrongdoings.
Will I continue to play softball at all? Probably, but I’ve got other hobbies too. But certainly I will not be spending time with people expressing such backward views and who operate with such underhanded tactics. Some may feel like this is just a harmless example of the “Irish cute hoor” or “being clever”, but it is sociopathic, hurts everyone and everything it touches, and I won’t have anything more to do with it.
You can be a decent human being, or you can be a part of the Castleknock Softball Club Management Group. You cannot be both.